A firestorm ensued after Jorge Cortell, CEO of a healthcare software company called Kanteron Systems, tweeted a photo of a woman’s towering stilettos at an entrepreneur-investment conference in New York on Tuesday with the following commentary:

“Event supposed to be for entrepreneurs, VCs, but these heels (I’ve seen several like this)… WTF? #brainsnotrequired”

Mr. Cortell was hotly accused of sexism, particularly after the ValleyWag blog ran an item on it. People were shocked, shocked, that anyone might appear to suggest that a woman wearing five-inch-high black stiletto platform heels could be calling attention to something other than her brain.

The two-day tweet-convo slid from sublime to ridiculous when Mr. Cortell argued that he wasn’t referring to sex at all. Heel wearers are dumb because heels are unhealthy for their feet and backs, he tweeted, repeatedly, until Twitter briefly suspended his account.

“High-heels = bad health choice = dumb,” he tweeted.

While podiatry may be his passion, it’s more likely that Mr. Cortell was wimping out in the face of an angry hoard of empowered heel-lovers. In an email responding to my questions, he insisted he is only focused on health, as a participant in the healthcare industry. “It seems like some debates are taboo,” he wrote in the email. “Cultural complacency is dangerous. Particularly when it affects health.”

If he had stood his ground, I would have stood with him. Five-inch-high platform stilettos call to mind the fetishistic footwear of a cabaret performer. If not quite hooker heels, they are nonetheless best paired with fishnet nylons, a sultry voice, and champagne for two.

In a business setting, platform stilettos are the female equivalent of a man wearing his shirt unbuttoned to his clavicle underneath his suit jacket.

Yes, we see them at venture capital conferences and in offices and even board meetings. But let’s not pretend they’re conservative business footwear. Twitter seems to agree. The social media service on Wednesday labeled Mr. Cortell’s heels photo “sensitive content” – requiring many users to click a permissions button to view it.

Do platform stilettos have a place in business? A pair of one-inch kitten heels are more likely to keep investors focused on your cerebrum, if that’s your aim. But people in business are meant to use all the tools at their disposal to get ahead. So the real question is, are five-inch stilettos more effective at raising venture capital than 1-inch kitten heels?